Our success in EXPORT Health (5P60 MD-000-207-04) has created a health promotion "greenhouse" where community engagement, behavior change interventions, research and training can now be fully realized to improve minority health status and eliminate health disparities in Greater Pittsburgh. This application describes the establishment of a Research Center of Excellence on Minority Health Disparities at the University of Pittsburgh with its overarching goal, "fostering excellence in transdisciplinary and community engaged research to improve minority health and eliminate health disparities in Pittsburgh's African American communities." Our objectives include: Objective 1: Evaluate the implementation of evidence-based public health interventions that are designed to reduce risk factors associated with pre-hypertension and pre-diabetes among participants enrolled in the Healthy Black Family Project (HBFP);Objective 2: Integrate systematic research studies on obesity, primary prevention of major depression, and immunization- related disparities into the Healthy Black Family Project;Objective 3: Conduct a community-wide, educational intervention designed to increase knowledge and overcome barriers to the willingness of African Americans to participate in research;Objective 4: Increase recruitment of African Americans into clinical, public health, and intervention research;Objective 5: Accelerate the career development of African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos pursuing academic and professional careers in the health sciences Objective 6: Create, validate, and refine a set of common measures of discrimination, neighborhood deprivation, trust in research, co-morbid symptoms, and mental health that may contribute to development of conceptual models and theoretical frameworks essential to understanding minority health disparities. The HBFP, which is physically located in the heart of the Black community, has enrolled 3,599 individuals. Our RCEMHD@UPITT will foster mature research initiatives that integrate our research and community engagement cores to enhance our understanding of prevention of chronic diseases (CVD, diabetes, cancer), major depression, and immunization related disparities. Our three major studies are "Weight Loss Intervention in Obese African American Women", "Prevention of Depression in Older African Americans" and "Linking Preventive Services to Eliminate Disparities in Vaccinations and Screening".